godra

Dave,it is IM mak-newt in guestion(MN66). Much heavier( around 10kg with accesories) and more length then MK67 which is great scope too but with lesser mount requirements. Vlaiv,DirkSteele thanks for suggestions. My IM MN66 is primarily planetary scope and can give very high magnifications( 250x-350x),seeing permiting. So I definitivly need AZ mount with tracking( with or without Goto). My budget is around 1000€.

Hi I do have IM MN66,fantastic scope in every way...little bit heavy but I don't mind. Only problem is that I have only GM8 mount and possition of focuser is very frustrating when you use it on german mount. What is your suggestions for some mount alternative....I have some AltAz mounts( with tracking) in mind but I would like to hear your thoughts). I am visual only.... Thank you

Many,many thanks to Spile,Doublevodka,Clarkey,Mark and others who suggested to rotate spider vanes by 180deg!! Guys,you are great!! With the "little" help of my friend I finally managed to do it! Tho whole secondary cage is now moved around 5mm toward primary mirror. Doing so,it was easy than to center secondary under focuser(and complete a collimation). Also,we cleaned the secondary mirror. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance yet (due to bad weather) to check the collimation on stars. Before modification: After: A few more pictures during the operation:

Yes, beautifull scope despite old fashion,industrial look🙂 Build like a tank! Acctualy,I went trough all phases of collimation and star testing. Stars don't snap to focus and they are pretty blury. What I found while doing star testing is that on outside side of focus, stars showing images like on those when pinched optics is present. Something like this: I attributed it to bad collimation though... Inside side of focus looks much better-nice concentric diffraction rings but atmospheric condition were not so good for definitive conclusions.

Spile,Clarkey thanks for the suggestions! Yes,it is technicaly possibble to rotate spider vanes and maybe this could help! I also have an idea to move focuser base(whole focuser) few millimeters to the right but that involves drilling wider holes (under focuser) on OTA.

Here's the pictures of vane assembly and secondary holder. As you can see...nearly no space between two holders,just top of the adjusters can be barely seen. :

Yes,I can confirm that. I will post pictures later this day!

Pixies,that's right. Nope....I even completely unscrewed adjusters to make sure they didn't block the secondary from fully retracting.

I can't bring the secondary holder more left (away from primary mirror) because it is maximum left position when I untighten tree outer bolts and when I fully screw central screw. In opposite,when I untighten tree bolts and unscrew central screw,then secondary is moving toward primary mirror (to the right on picture)

Dear astro friends, I recently bought a TAL-2 Newton reflector telescope and tried to collimate it because it has not been used for over 20 years. I noticed that the secondary mirror could not come to the correct position, just below the focuser. See the picture ... When the secondary mirror is moved to the maximum to the left, it still needs to be moved a little more to be exactly in the middle below the focuser. In this position, the central screw is fully screwed on and can no longer be moved backwards ... Other components such as the secondary carrier (spider) or the focuser cannot be moved but are fixed. I wonder if any of you have had similar experiences with this telescope and how this can be solved? Thanks in advance for the help,

This morning I tried to separate these two parts on my FC100DC but I failed. To much resistance...even with help of my friend. It seems to me that these two elements are also glued to each other !?Has anyone else had similar problems? With 2.6x GPC I can reach focus, but with 1.6x GPC don't have much in focus...

Two nights ago I made stupid mistake while I was using my brand new BBHS mirror diagonal with my binoviewer . Nose of the binoviewer is long,especially with GPC. When I came home I saw sometning like dirt on edge of the mirror,but ...that was scratch😪😪 It is located abot 3mm from edge of mirror plate and the size is about 3mm by 2mm( I think). Now,what to do? How much this affects image quality?? Weather forecast is very bad for the next 7-10 days... I made some pictures. This is view from telescope side: : Eyepiece side:

Now available!!! https://www.firstlightoptics.com/takahashi-other-accessories/more-blue-precision-focuser-retrofit-kit-for-takahashi-telescopes.html

Thank you! I can see your diagonal is one of the Baader T2. And also I can see that there's no clear consensus is the prism better than BBHS for this F number(7.4) Which one you prefer better?

HI! Can I reach focus with most 1.25" eyepieces if i buy Baader T2 BBHS diagonal? I have FC100DC with all adapters except n›16 - TKP20001(for staight through viewing)